Semiconductor device and method for fabricating the same

ABSTRACT

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method for fabricating semiconductor device includes the steps of: forming a semiconductor layer on a substrate; removing part of the semiconductor layer and part of the substrate to form a trench; forming a liner in the trench; removing part of the liner to form a spacer adjacent to two sides of the trench; and forming a bit line structure in the trench.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a method for fabricating semiconductor device,and more particularly to a method for fabricating bit line of a dynamicrandom access memory (DRAM) device.

2. Description of the Prior Art

As electronic products develop toward the direction of miniaturization,the design of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) units also movestoward the direction of higher integration and higher density. Since thenature of a DRAM unit with buried gate structures has the advantage ofpossessing longer carrier channel length within a semiconductorsubstrate thereby reducing capacitor leakage, it has been gradually usedto replace conventional DRAM unit with planar gate structures.

Typically, a DRAM unit with buried gate structure includes a transistordevice and a charge storage element to receive electrical signals frombit lines and word lines. Nevertheless, current DRAM units with buriedgate structures still pose numerous problems due to limited fabricationcapability. Hence, how to effectively improve the performance andreliability of current DRAM device has become an important task in thisfield.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method forfabricating semiconductor device includes the steps of: forming asemiconductor layer on a substrate; removing part of the semiconductorlayer and part of the substrate to forma trench; forming a liner in thetrench; removing part of the liner to form a spacer adjacent to twosides of the trench; and forming a bit line structure in the trench.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a semiconductordevice includes: a bit line structure on a substrate and a spacer aroundthe bit line structure, in which a top surface of the spacer is evenwith or lower than a top surface of the substrate.

Preferably, the semiconductor device further includes a shallow trenchisolation (STI) in the substrate, the spacer is surrounded by the STI,and a top surface of the spacer is even with or lower than a top surfaceof the STI. The bit line structure preferably includes a conductivelayer in the substrate, a metal layer on the conductive layer, and amask layer on the metal layer, in which a bottom surface of theconductive layer is lower than a top surface of the substrate, and thespacer is between the conductive layer and the STI.

These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt becomeobvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading thefollowing detailed description of the preferred embodiment that isillustrated in the various figures and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a top view of a DRAM device according to anembodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 2-6 are cross-sectional views illustrating steps for fabricating abit line structure of the DRAM device of FIG. 1 along the sectional lineAA′.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring to FIGS. 1-6, FIGS. 1-6 illustrate a method for fabricating aDRAM device according to an embodiment of the present invention, inwhich FIG. 1 illustrates a top-view diagram of a DRAM device and FIGS.2-6 illustrate cross-sectional views of a method for fabricating a bitline of the DRAM device along the sectional line AA′ of FIG. 1.Preferably, the present embodiment pertains to fabricate a memorydevice, and more particularly a DRAM device 10, in which the DRAM device10 includes at least a transistor device (not shown) and at least acapacitor structure (not shown) that will be serving as a smallestconstituent unit within the DRAM array and also used to receiveelectrical signals from bit lines 12, 26, 28 and word lines 14.

As shown in FIG. 1, the DRAM device 10 includes a substrate 16 such as asemiconductor substrate or wafer made of silicon, a shallow trenchisolation (STI) 24 formed in the substrate 16, and a plurality of activeareas (AA) 18 defined on the substrate 16. A memory region 20 and aperiphery region (not shown) are also defined on the substrate 16, inwhich multiple word lines 14 and multiple bit lines 12, 26, 28 arepreferably formed on the memory region 20 while other active devices(not shown) could be formed on the periphery region. For simplicitypurpose, only devices or elements on the memory region 20 are shown inFIG. 1 while elements on the periphery region are omitted.

In this embodiment, the active regions 18 are disposed parallel to eachother and extending along a first direction, the word lines 14 ormultiple gates 22 are disposed within the substrate 16 and passingthrough the active regions 18 and STI 24. Preferably, the gates 22 aredisposed extending along a second direction such as Y-direction, inwhich the second direction crosses the first direction at an angle lessthan 90 degrees.

The bit lines 12, 26, 28 on the other hand are disposed on the substrate16 parallel to each other and extending along a third direction such asX-direction while crossing the active regions 18 and STI 24, in whichthe third direction is different from the first direction and orthogonalto the second direction. In other words, the first direction, seconddirection, and third direction are all different from each other whilethe first direction is not orthogonal to both the second direction andthe third direction. Preferably, contact plugs such as bit line contacts(BLC) (not shown) are formed in the active regions 18 adjacent to twosides of the word lines 14 to electrically connect to source/drainregion (not shown) of each transistor element and storage node contacts(not shown) are formed to electrically connect to a capacitor.

The fabrication process conducted after the formation of word lines 14(or also referred to as buried word lines) and STI 24 is explainedbelow. First as shown in FIG. 2, a STI 24 is formed in the substrate 16to define the active regions 18 and word lines (not shown) are formed inpart of the STI 24 and the substrate 16, and an insulating layer 30 anda semiconductor layer 32 are sequentially formed on the STI 24 and thesubstrate 16. Next, a photo-etching process is conducted to remove partof the semiconductor layer 32, part of the insulating layer 30, and partof the substrate 16 to form a trench 34 in the substrate 16, in whichpart of the trench 34 within the substrate 16 is surrounded by the STI24. In this embodiment, the insulating layer 30 preferably includes amulti-layered structure which could further includes a silicon oxidelayer 36, a silicon nitride layer 38, and another silicon oxide layer 40while the semiconductor layer 32 atop the insulating layer 30 preferablyincludes amorphous silicon, but not limited thereto.

Next, as shown in FIG. 3, a liner 42 is formed in the trench 34 withoutfilling the trench 34 completely, in which the liner 42 preferablycovers the top surface of the semiconductor layer 32, sidewalls of thesemiconductor layer 32, sidewalls of the insulating layer 30, and thesurface of the substrate 16 under the trench 34. In this embodiment, theliner 42 is preferably made of silicon nitride, but according to otherembodiments of the present invention, the liner 42 could also be made ofdielectric layer such as but not limited to for example SiO₂, SiON,SiCN, or combination thereof.

Next, as shown in FIG. 4, an etching process is conducted to remove partof the liner 42 for forming a spacer 44 adjacent to two sides of thetrench 34. In this embodiment, the etching process is preferablyaccomplished by using a gas containing fluorine to remove part of theliner 42 for forming the spacer 44, in which the spacer 44 in realprocess or if viewed from a top view angle would be formed on sidewallsof the trench 34 to surround the entire trench 34. Nevertheless asdisclosed in the cross-sectional view shown in FIG. 4, the spacer 44 isdisposed on sidewalls of the STI 24 and/or substrate 16 adjacent to twosides of the trench 34, in which the spacer 44 further includes a spacer46 disposed on sidewalls of the STI 24 and insulating layer 30 on leftside of the trench 34 and another spacer 48 disposed on sidewalls of theSTI 24 and insulating layer 30 on right side of the trench 34. The topsurface of the spacer 44 formed at this stage is preferably even with orslightly lower than the bottom surface of the semiconductor layer 32, inwhich the height of each of the spacers 46, 48 at this stage ispreferably between 45 nm to 55 nm or most preferably about 50 nm whilethe widths of each of the spacers 46, 48 is preferably between 25 nm to35 nm or most preferably around 30 nm.

Next, as shown in FIG. 5, a non-metal conductive layer 50 is formed inthe trench 34 to fill the trench 34 completely and covering the surfaceof the semiconductor layer 32, and a planarizing process such aschemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process is conducted to remove partof the conductive layer 50 so that the top surfaces of the remainingconductive layer 50 and the semiconductor layer 32 are coplanar. Next,at least a metal layer 52 is formed on the conductive layer 50 and amask layer is formed on the metal layer 52. In this embodiment, thenon-metal conductive layer 50 could include polysilicon, amorphoussilicon, other silicon-containing or non-silicon containing non-metalconductive material. The metal layer 52 is preferably a metal stackstructure which could include a titanium (Ti) layer 56, a titaniumnitride (TiN) layer 58, a tungsten silicide (WSi) layer 60, and atungsten (W) layer 62. The mask layer 54 is preferably a SiN layer, butcould also include other insulating material including but not limitedto for example SiO₂, SiON, SiCN, or combination thereof.

Next, as shown in FIG. 6, a photo-etching process is conducted topattern the mask layer 54, the metal layer 52, and the conductive layer50 to form a bit line structure 64 on the substrate 16. Preferably, thespacer 44 formed between the bit line structure 64 and the STI 24through the aforementioned process could be used to prevent issue suchas leakage. In this embodiment, the formation of the bit line structure64 could be accomplished by first forming a patterned resist (not shown)on the mask layer 54, and then conducting one or more etching processesby using gas such as HBr to remove part of the mask layer 54, part ofthe metal layer 52, and part of the conductive layer 50, in which thepatterned mask layer 54, metal layer 52, and conductive layer 50together constitute a bit line structure 64 while the lower portion ofthe conductive layer 50 contacting the substrate 16 also serving as abit line contact 66.

It should be noted that the spacer 44 disposed between the conductivelayer 50 and the STI 24 could be partially removed during theaforementioned patterned process so that the height of the remainingspacer 44 could be slightly lower than the height of the spacer 44 shownin FIG. 4 after the bit line structure 64 is formed. In this embodiment,the top surface of the remaining spacer 44 at this stage is preferablyeven with the top surface of the substrate 16. Nevertheless, accordingto other embodiments of the present invention, the top surface of theremaining spacer 44 could also be between the top surface and bottomsurface of the insulating layer 30 or even below the top surface of thesubstrate 16, which are all within the scope of the present invention.Next, storage node contacts could be formed adjacent to two sides of thebit line structure 64 to electrically connect source/drain region andcapacitors formed in the later process depending on the demand of theprocess. Since the fabrication of storage node contacts and capacitorsare well known to those skilled in the art, the details of which are notexplained herein for the sake of brevity.

Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerousmodifications and alterations of the device and method may be made whileretaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the abovedisclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and boundsof the appended claims.

1. A method for fabricating semiconductor device, comprising: forming asemiconductor layer on a substrate; removing part of the semiconductorlayer and part of the substrate to form a trench; forming a liner in thetrench; removing part of the liner to form a spacer adjacent to twosides of the trench; and forming a bit line structure in the trench. 2.The method of claim 1, further comprising: forming a conductive layer inthe trench after forming the spacer; forming a metal layer on theconductive layer; forming a mask layer on the metal layer; andpatterning the mask layer, the metal layer, and the conductive layer toform the bit line structure.
 3. The method of claim 2, furthercomprising: forming the conductive layer in the trench; and removingpart of the conductive layer so that the top surfaces of the conductivelayer and the semiconductor layer are coplanar.
 4. The method of claim1, further comprising: forming a shallow trench isolation (STI) in thesubstrate; forming the semiconductor layer on the STI and the substrate;forming the trench in the substrate, wherein the trench is surrounded bythe STI.
 5. The method of claim 4, further comprising: forming aninsulating layer on STI and the substrate before forming thesemiconductor layer; and removing part of the semiconductor layer, partof the insulating layer, and part of the substrate to form the trench.6. The method of claim 1, wherein a top surface of the spacer is lowerthan a top surface of the semiconductor layer.
 7. The method of claim 1,wherein the semiconductor layer comprises an amorphous silicon layer. 8.The method of claim 1, wherein the spacer comprises silicon nitride. 9.The method of claim 1, wherein the spacer comprises silicon oxide.
 10. Asemiconductor device, comprising: a bit line structure on a substrate;and a spacer around the bit line structure, wherein a top surface of thespacer is even with or lower than a top surface of the substrate and abottommost surface of the bit line structure contacts the substratedirectly.
 11. The semiconductor device of claim 10, further comprising ashallow trench isolation (STI) in the substrate.
 12. The semiconductordevice of claim 11, wherein the spacer is surrounded by the STI.
 13. Thesemiconductor device of claim 11, wherein a top surface of the spacer iseven with or lower than a top surface of the STI.
 14. The semiconductordevice of claim 11, wherein the bit line structure comprises: aconductive layer in the substrate; a metal layer on the conductivelayer; and a mask layer on the metal layer.
 15. The semiconductor deviceof claim 14, wherein a bottom surface of the conductive layer is lowerthan a top surface of the substrate.
 16. The semiconductor device ofclaim 14, wherein the spacer is between the conductive layer and theSTI.
 17. The semiconductor device of claim 10, wherein the spacercomprises silicon nitride.
 18. The semiconductor device of claim 10,wherein the spacer comprises silicon oxide.